While we’re down in the Florida Keys we want to experience everything there is to offer for families! We stopped by the Florida Keys Aquarium Encounters and did the coral reef encounter.

The coral reef tour gave us an opportunity to get into the tanks with the exotic fish without disrupting their habitat. We had to take a quick shower before to rinse off all chemicals from our bodies so that we didn’t interfere with the habitat of the fish and reef in the tank.

Once we were all suited up in our wetsuits and gear, we were able to get into the tank with an amazing guide and feed the fish with a squeeze bottle and hand feed the sting rays with fish. We tried to feed the sharks through a whole by putting a fish through a hole connecting one tank to another but the sharks were already fed so only one of us was successful, but it wasn’t a big deal at all! Once we were finished with the tour, about a half hour to 45 minutes long, we were able to snorkel around for a few minutes to really check things out.

The aquarium supplies everything from wetsuits, masks, fins, snorkels and showers before/after the encounter.

After the tour, we explored the rest of the aquarium and learned a lot from the workers who were happy to answer any questions. There were so many hands on opportunites to touch the wildlife including turtles, fish, shrimp, crabs, sting rays (our favorite), horseshoe crabs and more!

All and all it took us about 3 hours to complete and that was plenty of time to revisit anything that we wanted to see for a second time. It costs about $500 for the 5 of us and that included the tour. I would HIGHLY recommend this for kids young or old!